Chapter 7 - The Desperate Bargain
The rain over Manhattan turned into a torrential downpour by evening, drumming against the concrete pillars of the underground executive garage beneath Alden Tower.
Julian and I stepped out of the private elevator toward my waiting armored Maybach. My driver, Thomas, was holding the door open when a shadow darted out from behind an industrial concrete pillar.
"Vivian!"
A disheveled figure lunged forward. Thomas instantly drew his service weapon, stepping between me and the intruder, while two private security guards tackled the man to the wet asphalt with brutal efficiency.
"Don't shoot! Don't shoot! It's me!" the voice wailed, muffled against the concrete.
It was Camden.
He was unrecognizable. He was wearing a soaked, oversized trench coat, a baseball cap pulled low, his face bruised and pale. He smelled of cheap gin and rainwater. He had lost his shoes, wearing dirty gym sneakers that squeaked on the pavement.
"Let him speak, Thomas," I said, stepping past Julian, who kept a protective hand inches from my elbow.
The guards hauled Camden to his knees. He looked up at me, water dripping from his chin, his eyes wide with frantic, manic terror.
"Vivian, you have to help me," Camden gasped, clutching at his chest. "Marcus sent people. Loan sharks. Russian enforcers. They came to the motel I checked into. They kicked down the door! They said if I don't give them eighty million dollars by tomorrow morning, they will cut my throat and dump me in the East River!"
"That sounds like a private matter between you and your business partners," I replied coldly.
"No, Vivian, please! I was seduced! Lila was working for Marcus all along!" Camden blurted out, tears mixing with the rain on his cheeks. "She came to the private aviation lounge six months ago on Marcus’s payroll! She targeted me! She made me drink, she made me feel like a king, she fed me lies about how you looked down on me! She was the one who copied the safe combinations! Marcus told her he'd make her a superstar in Asia!"
I glanced at Julian. His jaw tightened; our suspicions were confirmed. Lila was never just a shallow socialite mistress; she was an operative planted to dismantle me from within.
"And why should that change anything for you, Camden?" I asked, looking down at the man I had once thought I loved. "You let yourself be manipulated because your ego was too fragile to stand in the shadow of an Alden. You betrayed your vows. You betrayed my trust. You stole my family’s wealth."
"I have the offshore keys!" Camden wept, reaching into his pocket with trembling fingers, pulling out an encrypted hardware ledger. "Marcus used my name to launder ninety million dollars through Apex. The ledger is right here! If you give this to the FBI, Marcus goes to federal prison for thirty years! Take it, Vivian! Just give me protection! Put me in a safe house! Five hundred thousand dollars to start over somewhere else! Please, I’m your husband!"
"You were my husband," I corrected him, my voice devoid of any warmth. "Now, you are simply Exhibit A."
I gave a curt nod to Julian. Julian stepped forward, took the hardware ledger from Camden's trembling fingers, and slipped it into his inner jacket pocket.
Then, from the shadows behind the garage pillar, two plainclothes detectives from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Financial Crimes Division stepped into the light, their badges gleaming under the fluorescent bulbs.
"Camden Pierce," Detective Miller announced, unclipping a pair of steel handcuffs. "You are under arrest for grand larceny, corporate embezzlement, wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering."
Camden’s jaw dropped. He looked between the detectives and me, realization breaking through his panic like a sickening wave.
"You set me up..." he whispered in horror. "You knew I’d come here..."
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"I knew a coward always runs to the person he harmed most when he runs out of options," I said softly as the detectives forced his arms behind his back and snapped the steel bracelets shut. "Have a safe ride to Rikers Island, Camden."
***
